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STEAM Farmvention competition

During half term you might like to have some family fun taking part in the national Farmvention competition.

Farmvention is all about coming up with innovative ideas to help farmers tackle the problems they encounter caused by climate change.

There are two challenges:

What is the best material for a polytunnel?

What is the best shape for a drone?

Girls can take part in both activities or just one of them if they would like to enter. The polytunnel activity is ideal for younger girls, and the drone activity is more suitable for older girls, but both have lots of scope for family fun!

Once pupils have carried out their investigation they can film a Flipgrid video (no more than 1 minute) and post it, or email in or bring in photographs, videos, drawings, booklets or labelled diagrams to Mrs Farrer or Mrs Bond.

Maybe you will test polytunnel materials and make a model?

Maybe you will film a slo mo video of your drone shape test and draw a labelled diagram of a drone of the future?

The choice is yours!

More information is available for pupils on Flipgrid. For the drones activity look here, and the polytunnel activity look here. Pupils and parents will also find lots of ideas and tips on the Science Firefly pages.

Have lots of family fun with Farmvention over half term! The closing date to get your entries into Mrs Farrer or Mrs Bond is 6th November. We will then be carrying out other Farmvention activities during the year and sending in all of our work to the national competition. 

 

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Year 6 and the Teen Tech City of Tomorrow

Each Wednesday afternoon all of the junior girls have the opportunity to take part in an extra co-curricular club run by the Wimbledon High School teachers. One of the clubs on offer to year 6 is the Teen Tech City of Tomorrow Club which  is based on a competition open to 8-14 year olds. As part of the competition young people are asked to design a city of tomorrow that will be kinder, safer and smarter, and build a model to explain their ideas. The year 6 girls currently involved in this project have spent some time thinking about problems that exist in our cities, and have been coming up with inventive solutions to solve those problems. They are using recycled materials to construct a models of their ideas and will be showcasing their “Cities of Tomorrow” soon. We have enlisted the help of a civil engineer to give us some feedback on their ideas (virtually via Teams of course). Lexi Mackle, who is currently working on HS2, will be well placed to advise on transport issues, but has also offered to talk to the Teen Tech Club about her career and her suggestions for safer, kinder, smarter cities. Thank you Lexi! The girls are very much looking forward to meeting you.

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Young Scientists Journal for 12-20 year olds

Have you seen the Young Scientists Journal website? Lots of interesting articles to read and also the opportunity to publish an article of your own. Take a look here

You may well find something that interests you, for example this article is all about the physics of rowing!

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Nature Detectives from the Woodland Trust

This is a fabulous resource to help us enjoy what we can see from our windows or look at in our gardens. My favourite at the moment is the

Garden Bird Spotter sheet and Bird Hunt in the Animals section

and the

Build a bird nest in Outdoor Makes in the Outdoor Learning section. Perfect for years 1 and 2 – and for all of us!

I’m sure I’ll have a new favourite soon though! Enjoy loads of activities here.

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Family Fun from the Royal Institution

The Royal Institution might be closed at the moment but you can find videos and instructions to support great family fun from their ExpeRimental website.

My top tips would be

Singing Wine Glasses – year 4

Static Magic – year 6

Rufus and the Racers – year 3

Colour Quest – year 5

Though all ages will love all of them! Details here.

Have fun!

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#Science at Home

The PSTT and Science Sparks have teamed up to create great science challenges that can be done at home. They come out each Wednesday and are great fun. They can all be found here. This first challenge would be particularly enjoyed by pupils in years 2, 3 or 4 – though there is lots of fun for any age!

PSST Science Sparks Science at Home